SNAPSHOT IN HISTORY – HOW CHAMBOLI IN KITWE GOT ITS NAME 1952
By Eugene Makai
There is an interesting history to the origins of a name of what became a high density settlement in Nkana-Kitwe associated with the Scout movement in the then Northern Rhodesia.
The present day Kitwe Township of Chamboli was a wooded (forested) area in Nkana in the then Northern Rhodesia, that became the site of the 1952 Central African Jamboree where about 2,000 Scouts of the Scout Movement from Uganda, Tanganyika (Tanzania now), Nyasaland (now Malawi), Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Bechuanaland (now Botswana), Basutoland (now Lesotho) and the Belgian Congo (now the DRC) held a gathering known in scouting terms as a JAMBOREE.
The jamboree was held under the theme “BUCIBUSA” a Bemba language word implying friendship and loving companionship and comradeship.
The scouts camped in the woods, held camp-fires, exhibited their handicrafts, held shows with song, dance and plays while showcasing their survival skills in the African wilderness.
The name CHAMBOLI is a misnomer of the word JAMBOREE which the locals who eventually turned the area into an unplanned settlement could not properly pronounce.
There however is a variation in the pronunciation of CHAMBOLI with much older Zambians using JAMBOLI, a much closer rendition of the original word.
Photos:
- Two Northern Rhodesia Scouts attending the Central African Jamboree at Nkana-Kitwe in Northern Rhodesia in 1952.
- A commemorative patch of the Scout Movement for the Central African Jamboree held at Nkana in Northern Rhodesia in 1952
